Don’t be alarmed; that sound you just heard was the rush of air being released from TCU’s party balloons.
A day that began with the notion in some corners that at least one or possibly both of the top two teams in the nation could go down in defeat -- thus opening the door for the Horned Frogs to crash the big boy table at the title game -- ended the exact same way it started. Auburn and Oregon unblemished, unscathed and on an early January collision course for Glendale.
And, honestly, the outcomes were never really much in doubt. Nor, for that matter, are their respective crystal credentials.
Oregon had perhaps the “toughest” time of the two today, leading in-state rival Oregon State by just nine points at the half then outscoring the Beavers 21-10 in the second half to come away with a worse-than-it-looked 37-20 win.
Auburn, on the other hand, left little doubt as to the outcome, especially in the second half. After crushing South Carolina’s soul at the end of the first half, Auburn proceeded to grind the Gamecocks’ manhood to a bloody pulp in the second half, outscoring USC 28-3 to win going away.
(As an aside, and, speaking of winning going away -- which we will do in a bit -- is there any way you could not give the Heisman to Cam Newton in a landslide? Just give the man the trophy now and save everyone the hassle of working their way through the ungodly New York City traffic.)
In the end, and as much as I hate to admit it given how much I despise the system, the correct teams will be playing in the BcS title game. If you look at Auburn’s and Oregon’s complete body of work throughout the entire 2010 season, they are the two teams most worthy of a working vacation in Arizona.
Sure, you could make a case that either Stanford or Wisconsin are playing better football at this point in the season -- and they would be the two schools that serve as this season’s microcosm of the dire need for a playoff -- but the totality of the work of the two teams that will face-off in the title game should be unquestioned. They did it on the field and under criteria utilized by the current system that determines the national champion. Bottom line. End of story.
While I will continue to rail against the BcS, I won’t impugn what those two schools accomplished this season. They are the worthiest of the worthy and deserve the shot at hoisting the crystal. They’ve more than earned the right.
Absolutely nobody should take that away from them, regardless of the crap system that got them there.